


Let 'Em Know

by PencilDork



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, F/M, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 11:49:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18549178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PencilDork/pseuds/PencilDork
Summary: The summer before his senior year, Gendry Waters had only two things on his mind - making music with his band and maybe finally cleaning out his car. Until both his bandmates leave him.Luckily, Jon Snow's cousin is looking for a new bassit for her band. The catch? The cousin is Arya Stark.





	Let 'Em Know

**Author's Note:**

> Liiiisten friendos-  
> This is pure, unadulterated fun for me, myself, and I. I hope everyone else enjoys it, but the music is gonna be cheesy Top 100 Pop Rock songs from the 2000s because it's my favorite, the grammar is going to be absolutely horrible (because who proof-reads now a days?) and the characters are probably gonna be a touch OC.
> 
> This is my first fanfic, keep your expectations loooooow.   
> (But also I love critique, so go crazy but be nice!)
> 
> Songs in order of appearance-  
> HAPPINESS by NeedtoBreathe  
> What the Hell by Avril Lavigne

_"I got dreams that keep me up in the dead of night/_

_telling me I wasn't made for a simple life._

_There's a light I see, but it's far in the distance/_

_I'm asking you to show me some_ _forgiveness._

_It's all for you in my pursuit of happiness."_

 

Gendry held onto the last few chords as if he was extending his soul. Even though Jon was singing it, Gendry always felt really vulnerable as the words he had written were left hanging in the air after the song ended. It was a great feeling to play, but leaving himself out there like that always left him uncomfortable as soon as the song ended. 

Luckily, his friends had picked up on his weird ticks over the years and reacted accordingly. 

"Alright, who wants a soda?" asked Sam as he wiggled his way out from behind the drum kit. 

"Me." Jon and Gendry said in unison. The trio had been playing together since the two boys were freshman, and Gendry was in eighth grade. They had been friends before, effects of living in the same neighborhood, and it was a way for them to stay close after Gendry's mom died and he had to move across town. Rob had started his own band when the boys were in middle school with some of his friends, and after _Kings of the North_ had gotten picked up by a record label when they were sophomores, they were all free to use all the equipment he had left behind.

They called themselves  _The Bastards_ as an inside joke. 

 

Sam tossed the boys the sodas and they congregated around the gross couch set up they made in the corner. 

"Sam, what happened toward the end there by the way?" asked Jon jokingly.

"Sorry," replied Sam. "I kinda tuned out for a second there."

"Something on your mind?"

"Uhh.." Gendry and Jon both looked at their drummer. Sam had the habit of messing with the bottom fabric of his shirts when he was nervous, which caused a lot of his shirts to hang strangely in the front. Still, it was strange to see him relearn the habit since he had stopped doing it after he started dating Gilly.

"Did you in Gilly break up?" Gendry asked.  

"No! No no!"

"Then what's up, Sam?" Jon looked at his friend earnestly. "Is it college again?"

Gendry's heart tugged when Jon mentioned college. It was always painfully aware that this summer was the band's last one together before Jon and Sam left for college, and while future talk made Gendry sad, it gave Sam serious anxiety. 

"No, well sort of." Sam was seriously straining the end of his shirt. Gendry grabbed his shoulder to give him something else to focus on (a trick he learned from Gilly, but he did it his own way. Gilly's method was a bit more....charged). It seemed to work because Sam dropped his shirt and took a deep breath.

"Gilly's pregnant." 

Gendry's brain froze, and from the looks of it Jon wasn't any better. The room instantly became colder, and thoughts about money and futures flooded Gendry's brain. Was Gilly gonna have the baby? What was Sam gonna do about college? Was he going to get a job? Did _Gendry_ need to get a job? 

""Congratulations," Jon broke the silence.The wording was hesitant, but the sentiment was still there. Sam instantly relaxed, ignorant of Jon's awkwardness. 

"Yeah? Gilly was freaking out, and I told her that we would work to figure it out together no matter what-" Sam ranted for some time. Weirdly, this was the most confident Gendry had ever seen his friend when he had to talk about his future. Even when he got his acceptance letter from Notre Dame, Jon, Gilly, and him had spent three days after trying to calm him down. They halted band practice, though, which spiked Gendry's own anxieties, but he tried not to tell them. 

"So you want to keep it?" asked Gendry.

"Yeah," Sam smiled as he said it. "Yeah, we do! We're gonna start living together soon."

"Near Notre Dame?" Jon smiled, excited by his friend's excitement. 

"No, we're gonna stay close by. Gilly's mom still wants to see the baby and that. I think I'll go to community college, but I'll probably try to focus on work for a few months. Save up to get an apartment maybe." 

If it were anyone else, Gendry would have said this was a bad idea. However, it was Sam -- he loved Gilly more than anything, and she was always gentle around him and defended him like no one else ever could. He was also already a manager at the Burger King he worked at, and he actually really liked his job there. Maybe not forever, but for a few more months he could survive. _Plus_ , Gendry thought to himself, _he seemed happy._

"I'm happy for you, man," said Gendry. "And this way your close by!"

Sam's face went pale, and he started wearing at his shirt again. 

"About that, uh. I'm actually quitting that band."

"What?!" Jon and Gendry said at the same time. 

"I want to start getting more hours to save up, and the books I've read about pregnancy are intense! I want to try to be there for Gilly best I can! I'm sorry guys." 

"Don't be," Jon said warmly. "Actually, I wanted to run something by you guys as well."

The attention on Jon now, the shaggy-haired boy pulled his long curls to the back of his head as he breathed. 

"Rob asked me to go on tour with him," Jon stated. Immediately, Gendry and Sam began cheering like crazy - despite his family's unconditional love for him, Jon always felt out of place. Rob trusting him to go on tour with his band is an incredible show of just how much he was loved, and honestly it was something he really deserved.

"Bro, that's amazing!" Sam pulled Jon by his sleeve to wrap him in a huge hug. "Are you taking over for Edmure?"

"Yeah, he has to wait until his hand heals up before Rob will let him look at a guitar. So if I wanted to go, I could."

"If?" Gendry stood up next to his friends. "Why is there even an if?"

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you guys about." Jon rubbed the back of his neck. "It's a summer tour. I'd have to leave the first week of June."

That's when the attention turned to Gendry, and that's when he finally understood what Jon was saying. If Jon left, the band would have to split up three months ahead of schedule. And with Sam leaving to start his family, it was Gendry that was standing between Jon and his dream. 

"Dude, you have to go."

"I don't want you to feel like we're leaving you, though," Jon empathized. 

"We were gonna have to split up when you guys left for college anyway, and Jon, this is too good an opportunity to pass up! You want to miss out on touring the country with  _Kings of the North_ to sweat in my garage all summer?" Gendry believed every word he said, but he couldn't help but feel his heart break. His two best friends, his two  _only_ friends were leaving him. Also, with no one to sing his lyrics, Gendry was also going to have to say goodbye to music which really sucked since it was probably the only effective form of therapy he had. "I wish I was going with. Would give me an excuse to keep me from putting my bass in the closet for good." 

"I might have a solution to that, actually." The words were comforting, but Jon looked pained as he said it. 

"Uh, okay?"

"Well, I might, uh, know of a band- a really good band! I've heard them play, they have real skill! Right Sam?"

"Yeah, real good!" He said the words nervously.

"Wait," interrupted Gendry. "You guys have talked about this before?"

"I mean the Gilly thing is new," Jon responded. "But dude, we don't want you alone your senior year."

"So you've been Tinder-ing me out to other bands?" 

"That analogy only kind of makes sense."

"Shut up, Sam!" Gendry didn't like yelling at his friends, but his temper was always a difficult bomb to defuse. Again, music was good at that, but his bass was on the other side of the room.

"Gen, we just wanted to make sure you were okay." Jon's voice was firm, and it was moment like this that Gendry saw the relation to his Uncle Ned. "The band is good, and their bassist is moving at the end of the month, so they would be really grateful if you could help them out."

"Who's the band?" Gendry demanded. His two friends looked at each other, talking silently. "Guys, come on!"

"It's Arry's." said Sam.

"Who?"

"My sister." Jon interjected. 

Gendry took a second to process. Jon had two female cousins, but he always called Arya his sister. His baby sister. "You want me to play in a kid's band?"

"Not a kid! Arya is a sophmore, which was actually two years older than you when you started, and the two other kids are both Juniors." 

"Are juniors or are going to be Juniors?"

Jon stayed silent. Gendry was going to have to play with a bunch of babies.

"Listen, you don't have to commit to anything, but could you at least hear them play?" Jon reasoned. "She's been heartbroken ever since she found out Mycah was leaving, and she really loves her band."

Gendry looked at Jon, which was his first mistake. The man could be insanely intimidating, but boy did he know how to beg. The combination of his dark eyes and wild hair made him look like a wolf puppy, which was Gendry's greatest weakness.

"Fine."

 

***

 

Although Gendry had grow up at the Stark house, he hadn't seen Arya in nearly four years. As kids, she would follow Jon everywhere, and if Gendry and Sam were over, the four of them would be inseparable. When the band started, she had made t-shirts out of puffy paint and dried up all her brand new copic markers making really bad posters for _The_ _Bastards_. Rob would always fake-cry when he came home about how  _He wanted a number one fan like Arya_. She was their only fan, since Gendry didn't really like anyone else watching them preform except her. And sometimes Sansa when she would play keyboard for them.

When Sansa hit high school, though, she stopped taking her piano lessons and became very involved in the cheer squad and -- more importantly -- Joffrey Baratheon. And Joffrey didn't like music (because he was Satan) so if he was ever over, Sansa wouldn't let them play. Jon, having been in constant fear of being a burden on any member of his family, always did as she said, but Arya would raise hell. Eventually, Gendry moved into a nearby foster home with Tohbo Mott who was never at the house and had a large garage for them to practice in. His one rule was no girls, so Arya was no longer allowed to come to practices. 

As he drove up the long Stark driveway, he had flashbacks to when he had first seen the large estate. They had a big family, plus Rob's band, so they needed the space when everyone was in town, but the mansion was three stories and had glass windows bigger than Gendry's car. 

 

Mrs. Stark greeted him at the door with a hug and a kiss on the head. She lead him to the second garage (They called it a shed, but Gendry probably could have lived in it comfortably for the rest of his life) where Jon and his sister's band were practicing. There was no really reason for her to, since Gendry memorized the layout of the house years ago and had heard the band playing from when he pulled into the driveway, but he still appreciated it.

"Jon, Gendry is here!" Mrs. Stark annouced his entrance. Jon moved to clap his back and brought him in, and now Gendry could agree that he was in unfamiliar territory. When he left the garage four years ago, it was practically empty save the band equipment and the poorly drawn posters for  _Bastards._ Now every square inch of the walls was covered in different vinyl album covers, pictures of Arya's friends and family, and fairy lights. One wall was completely foam for acoustics (something Gendry always wanted to try but could never afford) and there was even a corner similar to his own garage made up of bean bag chairs, a cooler, and a Jon who waved him over.

"Arya just went to the bathroom, but let me introduce you to the rest of the guys." Jon pointed at the scrawny guitarist with a full head of blond hair that went down to his shoulders, and the chubby drummer who was eating a Hawaiian roll. "That's Lommy, and on the kit back there is Hot Pie."

"That's your name?" Gendry asked him. The boy cowered as he asked it, but Gendry couldn't find it in himself to care.

"Uh, yeah, a nickname.." said the boy. "I got it in middle school when I fell over, well not really fell over, more fell on top of-"

"I'm Mycah," interrupted a redhead boy on bass.

"You're the one whose leaving, right?"

The boy scratched his head and shrugged. "Life of a military family! Thanks for filling in for me, though. Arya almost killed me when I told her we wouldn't be able to do Battle of the Bands."

Gendry arched his eyebrows and looked at Jon. "Battle of the Bands?" 

"Yeah, Arry's got her heart set on competing."

"Jon, I don't play in front of peo-"

It was at that moment that the side door slammed open with a thud and a frustrated  _Bitch!._

Gendry wasn't sure what he was expecting when he thought about seeing Arya again - admitingly he just thought he was going to see the small sixth grader who kept cutting her own hair to combat how her mom kept putting her in dresses that he remembered from his freshman year. However, that was not who walked in the door. 

Instead, he saw high-waisted jean shorts paired with a white, singed, and cropped  _Kings of the North_ band-tee and a red bandana holding back a messy braid. He saw long, pale legs and stripped Christmas socks stuffed into a pair of roughed up lime green Vans. He saw freckled arms covered in every color hair-tie, and he saw bright blue eyeliner on under eyes so deeply brown, they looked like holes he would fall into.  

He saw Arya Stark, and he did not know how to feel. 

"Alright dicks," said Arya as she walked over the the amp Mycah's guitar was plugged into. "Sansa brought her stick-ass boyfriend home, so we have to play extra loud to make sure he hates it and leaves. Preferably the planet, but I'll settle with leaving the property. Got it?"

Satisfied murmuring circled the group. Arya grabbed a cherry-red guitar and grabbed the mic in front of her. Without a que, Hot Pie hit his drum with every word she said as the got into the song. 

It was so loud and she sang with so much energy, it took a second before Gendry could even hear the lyrics, but when he did..

 

_Say, won't you stay forever stay/_

_I you stay forever hey/_

_We can stay forever young._

 

 

 


End file.
